The present invention is directed to a distribution cabling tape or protective adhesive-backed structure and system for an asphalt or concrete surface, such as a road, curb, or walkway, that protects cabling, wires, splices, and other telecommunications network devices.
Communications service providers are faced with increasing demands to deliver faster and better service to their customers. Service providers can meet these needs for greater bandwidth by incorporating fiber optics in the access network, the communication connection to the end subscriber. Service providers have announced gigabit service offerings.
With many players competing in the industry, speed to build new networks is critical. However, the process to deploy traditional fiber optic networks often requires time consuming civil engineering work both in planning, verifying existing infrastructure location and construction. The access network can be the most burdensome in that individual fibers must connect each subscriber's living unit. In the case of single family home neighborhoods, that means a single fiber to each home.
For aerial deployments (telephone poles), deploying the fiber optic cable is relatively straight forward. Lashing the new fiber optic distribution cable to existing telephone cabling or stringing a new messenger wire in which to lash the new fiber optic cable is done relatively quickly (about a day to install the distribution cable for a serving area of 200-500 homes). However, for new entrants for fiber-to-the-home (FTTh) service, gaining access to the telephone poles from the pole owner (often incumbent telephone company) can be a time consuming and litigious process.
For below grade deployments (conduit below grade in which to pull the distribution cable) deployment can involve many construction machines and operators for weeks for a serving area of 200-500 homes. One of the most time consuming operations is directional drilling to place the conduit below grade. The cost of directional drilling is approximately $40/foot making below grade fiber access network deployment cost much more than aerial deployments.
Therefore, need exists for a distribution cabling alternative to traditional aerial and below grade installations that can eliminate the need to share telephone poles and avoid the time consuming and costly directional drilling for conduit placement.